Contents:

Back to Reality - Towards Long Term Solutions to the Mortgage Crisis

 When Deception is Built In - How Congress Writes American Law

Don't puzzle over how to solve our problems. We're fortunate. Our forefathers set this up for us. First, you vote out the politicians working against us. Then you vote in people that want to look after us properly. Once they're settled in, you tell them about our suggested solutions so they can get to writing them into bills. Then you watch the House and Senate with hawk eyes to see that improvement legislation gets passed. If it doesn't, we find out why and fix it.

If someone votes against improvements, then some way of attaching an explanation should be arranged. No more "not voting" or "presents".  If they were holding out for something better, then they'd better make sure something better gets written and voted on.

Towards Long Term Solutions in the Mortgage Crisis

            It's nearly amusing to see those that jumped on the sub-prime mortgage band wagon trying to blame those that took out loans. Irresponsible, they cry. They defrauded us, they complain.

            Right.

            When I was much younger, I had just broken up with my spouse and had returned  to another city in another state. I was employed and lived with a family member. Even after contributing to the family money envelope, my expenses were minimal.

            One day I fell in love with a car. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a Dodge Dart Swinger. A turquoise blue with a white vinyl top. I filled out the loan app and after a few days, the saleman called and said I was turned down for the loan. We got together and filled out the application more carefully. A few days later, I was rejected again. After going through this a few times, the salesman inquired as to what the problems was. In those days, a lender didn't have to tell you why you were rejected.

            The answer? It was because I wasn't legally divorced yet. According to their thinking, my ex had an equal right to the car. If they came and took the car, I would obviously stop making payments on it and they'd be out the money.

            The odds of my ex doing this were beyond astronomical, but the lender wouldn't budge.

            The point of the story is that it really didn't matter what an individual said or the reality of their situation, the lenders had their standards and that was the only real relevant point. You either made it or you didn't.

            That, I suppose, is why I find it rather amusing when the less scrupulous lenders blame it on the borrowers.

            Just as self-serving are those individuals, often found on the financial shows, that point accusing fingers at the public and say that they caused the problem by taking on loans for property that they couldn't afford.

            We know that some lenders lied to consumers and we imagine that some did not. We're forced to set this aside for a moment. Leaving that space blank, the average mortgage runs about thirty or forty pages. Could you stand there with a straight  face and say that the terms of the loan had to be "obvious"?

            Again, the point here needs to be that the responsibility had customarily been the lender's. They were the ones that had the most to lose. Or so they say. Lenders say that foreclosure ends up costing them money. Considering that they end up with the property, I have my  doubts that they are left more in debt than they came into the situation with. Particularly when you consider how property has been effectively priced out of the ordinary person's range of affordability. No doubt, this is our "free market" at work again.

            I don't know about you, but I'm about "free-marketed" out.

            You cannot completely change social buying customs, not tell the public and yet somehow expect them to know and understand it.

            There was a day when this so-called "creative financing" would never have gotten off the ground. Congress could have written out suggestions until they were blue in the face, and it wouldn't have made lenders change their standards one damn bit.

            I'm astonished by the sheer audacity of those calling for a lender's bailout. Instead of arresting these jackals, we are covering their debts? This is including bailing out foreign banks, such as Swiss Bank where the illustrious former Senator Gramm now is employed? This is including the exorbitant salaries and so-called "golden parachutes"?

            Look, any company that intends to pay management a million dollars or more that ran the company into the ground shouldn't be invested in period. They've already demonstrated mind-boggling stupidity. Add this to the ethics of participating in the sub prime mess and you have a company that I don't much care if it goes up in flames.

            How well would we recover if we went after each lender that was listed on the papers of the foreclosed on or threatened to be foreclosed on citizen? Yes, that would take time and money, but if we seize the ill-gotten gains of the ordinary drug dealer, why can't we seize the assets of the less than ethical lender that conducts itself in a manner that would make a loan shark blush?

            There is no mystery here on how to proceed. If it were a large group of us that did dirty deeds, we'd be prosecuted and expected to pay the price for our crimes. We need a list of victims, including, I might add, those that have already lost their homes. It may be to our advantage to develop a special court for managing these cases. Each case needs to be evaluated individually. A fund for the seized assets needs to be started and retained solely for the purpose of repairing damaged citizenry, homes and neighborhoods and the occasional lender that actually was careful, yet somehow managed to lose out anyway.

                Sadly, reputable lenders are not stepping forward to say that not all lenders behaved idiotically. I don't want to think about why. You go ahead though.  

            Special attention needs to be paid to the senior citizens that have lost their retirement money through the reckless conduct of these lenders. These people will need somewhere to live and money to live on. It shouldn't be the burden of the tax payers but the violators that assumed they could take these kinds of risks with someone's retirement money.

            Among the most important things we must do here is to restore completely the regulations removed from lenders and the commodities markets. Might as well repair both of these areas. The CFTC was created to monitor and control our commodities markets. Why don't we have them do that? We may first need to rid them of any less-than-scrupulous management that continues to blur the issues that send commodity prices into the stratosphere.

            Should this be done in one fell swoop? As tempted as I am to say yes, change that shakes the foundations of important institutions should be done a little at a time --just as it was enacted. The gradual peeling away of the spider webs of corruption and poor legislation must begin and the damage, as much as possible, repaired. Special laws to prevent hysteria from further damaging our society  will most likely need to be written and enforced.

            Give the legitimate investors time to get out of our commodities markets and reinvest elsewhere. If our oil companies and suppliers feel inclined to reduce production in order to keep prices artificially elevated, then we might consider withdrawing whatever benefits they get from the society they now feel so comfortable violating for their own coffers.

            Under no circumstances should foreign investors that intentionally particpated in the rape of the American public be bailed out. For that matter, neither should the American firms that somehow forgot their own ethics in regards to the very society that they feed off of. We should feel no obligation to parasites so greedy that they feed to the extreme of killing their host.

            To continue allowing hit-and-run profiteers to benefit from taking advantage of citizens, I believe, puts our political leaders promoting those activities in breach of contract. Isn't it illegal for states to pass laws that are in violation of the constitution?

            Whether it is legalized murder by starvation, property seizure through eminent domain and medicaid recovery or financial slight of hand in lending, it all amounts to the same thing. A legislative body that is corrupt to the point of being beyond ineffective, but has become a part of the "problems" that damage our citizens and in casual indifference threaten very foundations of this country.

            America will recover from this and investors should think ahead to her rebuilding and renewed success. If Americans chose to kept their money at home, we are going to need a lot of manufacturers and community housing for an aging population. The possibilities are endless. And just make good sense.

            Perhaps the globe has gotten smaller for those politicians that are determined to give foreign countries advantage over Americans, but as far as I can see, other countries have not moved any closer to us than they were before.

               Foreign countries certainly prioritize their own interests when dealing with us. It's time Americans put people in office that will do the same for American interests. It's well past the time our government realize that friends you must buy are not really friends at all.

             Maybe we can just send those politicians and other government staffers to whatever country whose needs they have placed above their own. I'm sure they'll be glad to take them. We must remember to remove the money they got from us through promoting the welfare of others above ours first. They can remake their fortunes in their new homes.

            The first steps towards these solutions is to search out and identify key votes that led to legislation that tore at this country's well being. These will contain the names of those of questionable priorities. Each and every American that can vote must pursue the voting record of their own senator and congressperson and act accordingly. Americans must tune in and this time, STAY TUNED. There is a thin line between trust and stupidity and we crossed it some time back.

             If it's become too difficult for the ordinary man to track government, then that's an identified problem that needs solving. And quick. In this internet age, surely we can manage to come up with something that works.  

            Voting out the losers will help alleviate what must have been a nightmare for those people that work for us and tried to keep the bad guys from taking over. Perhaps special honors will be in order for those that never stopped trying to save us from our own negligence.

            If in the long run, we cannot be bothered, well, then I guess it's true. People truly get the government they deserve.

When Deception is Built In - How Congress Writes American Law

            Okay. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the "earmark" system of requesting money for projects is inefficient and allows for frivolousness. It also makes it difficult to track spending adequately.

            The bundling of bills about serious issues is even more destructive as far as maintaining accountability and control by the people. (I think that our forefathers warned us about this somewhere)

            For example: Look at the title of this bill (which became law)

Do you know what I was looking for (and found)? The vote on raising the minimum wage.

How can you possible tailor the budget, manage issues if these are all rolled into one and then voted on.

This looks like a system designed to be abused, doesn't it?

So. How do we fix this?

Don't over-complicate this. Make it law that bills be appropriately titled and serious issues handled separately. How can we hold our reps accountable if we don't?  The bills should also be blended into the text of the law they're changing, preferably color-coded so that the new text is readily recognizable. Plain English should be a requirement as it is in every profession that produces paper that is to be read by the public.